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As a group of youngsters—Fred (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Velma
(Christina Ricci), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and his best pal, Scooby Doo (a Great Dane) who call themselves Mystery, Inc.—become celebrities as hoax and crime-busters, egos
inflate and clash, and they disband. After two years, to their surprise they find themselves together, though invited individually with all expenses paid, at Spooky Island, a
teen-oriented tourist resort. Its owner, Mr. Mondavarious, purposely reunited them, hoping that Mystery, Inc. will be able to solve why tourists who arrive happy and excited,
go home looking like zombie-robots. Is this the work of magical evil forces or some satanic cult?
The movie, like the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same title on which it is based, is entertaining
but not really that great. This new live action version is reinvented with trying hard, noisy, hi-tech special effects such as an eerie castle, horrifying giant monsters,
(which can scare very young viewers), and a cute creative 'whodunit' villain. The characters are faithful to their cartoon counterparts, with credible performances of the
lovable tandem of computer-generated Scooby Doo and his antics with his true-to-form beatnik-sidekick, Shaggy. Gellar here is not as self-sufficient as in her Buffy role, but
rather a perpetual damsel in distress, while leader Prinze's performance is as limp as a leader going nowhere. The toilet humor is in poor taste, and there's nothing much to
laugh about. However, there's this one truly laughable scene where their small ghost-like bits of protoplasm cause a great merry-mix-up in their gender characters and voices.
Despite its flimsy plot, positive values can somehow be gleaned from the movie.. As the group suffers great
difficulty in solving their assigned mystery, they realize that they cannot move on unless they learn to put aside their pride and selfish ambitions. In a big mission such as
this, solo gimmicks are hard to carry out alone. They learn to put up with each other's shortcomings, forget past hurts and misunderstandings, plan and work out strategies as
the original Mystery, Inc.. Only then will they be happy in sharing the required tasks and whatever successes they will reap, and ultimately bask in the glory and limelight
together as a team.
(Date reviewed: June 21, 2002)
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